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Shooting Script by Gavin Lyall

My favourite read by the late Gavin Lyall, a pilot who can write an aviation novel with feeling. The story includes a D.H. Dove, D.H. Vampires and a B-25. Read this book more times than I can count, not a complicated technical read but very enjoyable none the less.

Given all the recent fuss and fury over the latest film production of Dunkirk, this book is pretty topical:

"Dunkirk", Julian Thompson, Pan Books, ISBN 978-15098-6004-3. £8.99

This book is overly rich on detail. It is at its best when telling the story at individual, platoon or company level. I felt that continuity suffered when too many regimental names, numbers and other detail intruded.

It is an excellent read and explains that the reason for the debacle lay with the defeatist French army leadership.

Von Below was one of Hitler's adjutants for most of the war years. He was very much an insider. He tells his story abetted by excuse after excuse. If you can overlook the propaganda, it is a gripping account of life very much at the heart of the Nazi establishment. The half truths, lies and evasions are to be expected, and indeed the reader isn't disappointed on that account.

This is a personal account of the British Army against the Japanese Army in Burma. It is compelling, savage, and does little to protect the reader against the sheer brutality of hand-to-hand battle implicit in trench warfare. Dealing with an implacable enemy, an equally implacable terrain and climate is perfectly described by this author.

Yet another very competent account of the Battle of Britain, provided by those who took part. The excitement, the sense of urgency, anxiety and fear of failure are on show.

It is instructive to note (see recent discussion on Historic re convoy CW9 - Peewit) that the author confirms that the subsequent German attacks on CW9 were a consequence of detection by recently installed German radar and not as some opinion has it, by observer visual sighting.

Hi All,
Thought it was about time I read my World War One by AJP Taylor that I was given as a Christmas present in the 70's, sadly I have never read but
looking forward to this and his follow up about WW2...

This is a history of the RAF by accomplished historian, Patrick Bishop, published to coincide with the centenary of the RAF, next year 2018.

A good account but, I found it slightly underwhelming. Mr. Bishop delves into the characters and personalities of the RAF top brass. He very adequately explains the administrative background and shines a light into some of the more bizarre - with hindsight - military policy decisions that still attract comment.

If you need to take a look at how the RAF was assembled from its earliest days, this is for you.

I came late to this book first published in 2012. It features a wealth of detail about the development and performance of the Wooden Wonder, its deployment thru' the RAF and the uses to which this fabulous aeroplane was put.

The author refers - albeit briefly - to the number of aircrew casualties suffered as a consequence of offensive operations flown in appalling weather conditions merely to maintain continuity of attack on German targets. A dreadful waste of skilled and courageous aircrews and resources.

The book charts Crosley's service career in the Fleet Air Arm during the entire period of the Second World War. Part of his service saw him in action aboard HMS Eagle, flying Sea Hurricanes on the Harpoon and Pedestal Malta convoys of June and August 1942. It was during this time that he shot down his first enemy aircraft and survived the dramatic sinking of HMS Eagle. From there he graduated on to Seafires, (the Naval equivalent of the Spitfire), and flew this type in Combat Air Patrols over Norway and ramrod strikes from Operation Torch (the invasion of French North Africa in November 1942), through to D-Day in June 1944 in the European Theatre of Operations, and then in the Pacific abroad HMS Implacable as part of the British Pacific Fleet in 1945 until the end of the Pacific War, by which time he had command of his own combined squadron, 801 and 880.

Mr. Letts writes for the Sunday Times and the Daily Mail so, hence, is everyone's favourite journalist! This book is a savage assault on the hypocrisy, humbug and cant endemic in British public life. The author is merciless in exposing the intellectually warped thinking processes of those who consider themselves our masters.

His excoriating prose flays and strips the veneer of make believe acceptability that cloaks the activities of champagne socialists, the kingdom of luvvies, foreign aid, the Civil Service, and the squirming heaving pulsating mass of cheap carpetbaggers that runs thru' our society like a glutinous thread of sewage.

Analytical account of the individual performances of RAF Fighter Command flight and ground crews during the last war; leaning more towards 1940/41/42. Each chapter accompanied by 'endnotes'.

Bowman tells of one incident which considerably altered my perception. I'm sure that most are familiar with the 'Battle of Barking Creek'. This was an infamous incident when in a case of mistaken identity, Spitifres attacked Hurricanes over East London during the later part of 1939 just after war was declared.

At the Courts Martial that followed, Sailor Malan who gave the order to attack what he had identified as enemy aircraft was persuaded to give evidence for the prosecution against P/O John Freeborn one of his own pilots. The Court very properly found that it amounted to no more than a regrettable act of the 'fog of war'.